What’s happening?

What’s happening? Here is an update for November 2025:

EU REACH: revised fee regulation
ECHA CHEM: database now includes regulatory data on chemicals
US Chemicals: Society for Chemical Hazard Communication annual meeting

EU REACH: revised fee regulation

The revised EU REACH Fee Regulation entered into force on 5 November 2025. It brings two major changes:

Raised fees for large companies

Effective immediately, from 5 November 2025, standard fees and charges for large companies will increase by 19.5%, reflecting a cumulative inflation rate in Europe over 2021-2023 (prior to the revision process).

The adjustment of fees aims to support the financial sustainability of the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) in a way that, when combined with other sources of the Agency’s revenue, it would sufficiently cover the cost of the services delivered by ECHA.

Changed verification process for SMEs

Starting from 5 February 2027, micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) will have to apply for company size verification before submitting their REACH registrations or other applications to benefit from the reduced fees. The fees for SMEs will not be increased.

Companies claiming to qualify as SMEs will have to apply for company size validation at least two months before submitting their dossiers.

ECHA will have two months to verify the SME status and issue a decision – a positive decision will be valid for three years and applicable to all submissions during that time.

If the company’s size remains unchanged, the first renewal of the SME status can be done by self-declaration, if it is initiated two months before the validity expires.

If an applicant’s SME status is not supported during the validation, an administrative charge may be imposed. ECHA will publish support material to help SMEs prepare for their company size validation closer to the time.

H2 Compliance advises companies that consider they qualify as SMEs to review the latest guidelines and prepare for the company size verification as early as possible, to allow sufficient time for gathering supporting documents and processing and enable timely submissions with the reduced fees.

You can get more information here and reach out to H2 Compliance team for guidance here.

ECHA CHEM: database now includes regulatory data on chemicals

The third expansion of the European Chemicals Agency’s (ECHA) new chemicals database, ECHA CHEM, incorporates overviews of different regulatory activities by authorities and the resulting outcomes.

The regulatory data comes from various pieces of legislation under ECHA’s remit.

Visibility of authorities’ regulatory activities on specific chemicals and resulting actions help companies to effectively participate in the decision-making process (via consultations) and comply with the laws concerning the chemicals they use.

It is a valuable resource.

ECHA maintains the largest public chemicals database in the European Union (EU), combining industry-submitted data with information generated through the EU’s regulatory processes.

The database includes:

REACH Regulation

Data from over 100,000 REACH registrations that companies have submitted to ECHA
List of substances restricted under REACH and the restriction process
Authorisation List and ECHA’s recommendations for including substances in the List
Substances of very high concern (SVHC) and the Candidate List, and
Dossier and substance evaluation

Drinking Water Directive (DWD)

European positive lists (EUPL)

Classification, Labelling and Packaging Regulation (CLP)

Annex VI – the list of substances with EU harmonised classification and labelling (CLH) and the CLH process

Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) Regulation

The lists of substances subject to POPs Regulation and substances proposed as POPs

Except for the new DWD European positive lists, these lists will continue to be available under the Search for chemicals section on ECHA’s website.

US Chemicals: Society for Chemical Hazard Communication annual meeting

On 23 to 25 September, H2 Compliance’s Emily Bergmann attended the Society for Chemical Hazard Communication Conference in Washington, D.C., USA.

The conference featured a variety of informative sessions, including:

presentations on labelling
updates to HazCom and TSCA
deep dives into specific SDS sections, and
regional insights from Latin America and Asia

Emily also enjoyed the opportunity to connect with clients over lunch and attended both the networking happy hour and the poster session, both of which offered valuable opportunities for professional engagement.

Overall, it was a valuable conference experience, highlighting key developments in chemical hazard communication.